


Hope of Morning

by Vext



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, M/M, Slow Burn, Suspense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:20:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25850467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vext/pseuds/Vext
Summary: Kamukura Izuru always worked alone. As the best assassin at the Future Foundation, a partner would only get in his way. So when Kamukura was assigned a new partner Naegi Makoto, he was incredibly less than pleased. As the two opposites learn to work together, Kamukura realizes that there is more than what appears than just a simple partnership.
Relationships: Kamukura Izuru/Naegi Makoto
Comments: 2
Kudos: 53





	Hope of Morning

_It was cold inside the warehouse, much too cold for this time of year. The only sound was water dripping from a leak in the ceiling and the breath of two men just staring at each other. Perhaps they were waiting the other to make the first move? Or maybe they were so shocked that they couldn’t move. Beside them was a body, not breathing, in a puddle of red liquid. A fresh corpse._

_However neither of them looked at the body; they practically forgot that it was still there. They were too busy analyzing each other, as though body language would say everything that couldn’t be said aloud._

_A soft murmur from one man broke the silence. “Now read your message.”_

_The other man slowly reached down and brought out his phone, the light almost blinding compared to the dull, dark haze around them. His eyes widened as he read what was on the screen. Even as he read the words, he knew what each word meant individually, but he couldn’t process it all together._

_The water continued to drip._

\---

The only time Izuru Kamukura ever bothered to put his hair up was when he was in the middle of a job. After all, you can’t just leave your DNA all over a crime scene. Granted, it’s not as though once he finishes his jobs that anyone would call the police. When you work for dubious companies, the clients that you get will also be dubious. It’s just common sense. Kamukura put his hair up in a bun. He tended to hate that annoying constriction on his scalp, but he supposed it was necessary.

Besides, it’s easier to assemble a sniper rifle when you don’t have hair in your eyes.

With precision and speed that proved his mastery, Kamukura slotted his rifle with ease, not wasting a single movement. He finished by attaching the scope to the top and looked down from the roof of the building he was at. It was a party on top of a roof on the building right next to him. Specifically a birthday party due to the outright obnoxious amount of balloons, garlands, and a projector that showed a slideshow of pictures of the guest of honor: Kamukura’s target.

It was easy to deduce what kind of person a target is without even meeting them face to face. First off, the mere fact that Kamukura was on a higher ground spoke volumes. Either his target was incredibly foolish or incredibly naïve. Even if you have swarms of bodyguards around you, it means nothing if you don’t have cover from the top. Therefore, his target is probably someone _nouveau riche._

To further exemplify his hypothesis, the target was a man that was practically hemorrhaging money. The Future Foundation provided Kamukura bank statements of his target. He was spending absurd amounts of money on the most frivolous things: helicopter tours of cities, nightly bottle service at his favorite club, as well as keeping an entourage with tastes equally if not more expensive than his own.

Which was exactly what Kamukura’s client wasn’t happy about. When you deal with dubious companies, it’s best to pay their cut of finances, otherwise people like Kamukura will come and proceed to cut their weak point. _‘A birthday present,’_ the client had explained to Kamukura’s handler. _‘What’s a birthday without a surprise?’_

Whatever. It wasn’t Kamukura’s job to care about neither the circumstances nor the reasoning of his hits. All he had to do was finish it.

Movement on the rooftop broke the still of the night. Kamukura peered down at the bodyguards coming in and standing in strategic places. Not as though the placement counted when he had the high ground. After a few moments, music started playing, blaring so loudly that Kamukura could hear it from a building and a few flights up away. Obnoxious.

Kamurkura saw more than heard two women laughing as they walked onto the rooftop, holding on to a man on both arms. The target. He was a short man, short enough that the women in heels were taller than him. He wasn’t old per say, but there was certainly a noticeable age gap between the man and the women hanging off his arms. The target’s clothing was sloppy compared to the women’s pristine style. The women probably wanted to look their best so they could get as much as they could from the target. But it was no matter; the women would just be hanging off someone else’s arm tomorrow.

Kamukura never took his eyes off the target, not even blinking as he was trained to do. He was waiting for the perfect moment. The goal as an assassin was to eliminate the target and anyone who witnessed his work and make a clean escape. As he was a hundred yards away on a separate building, he doubted any chance of witnesses, but it was better to be safe. Cockiness was never a flaw that Kamukura had.

The target and the women sat on a couch. The way the couch was positioned, it was sideways from Kamukura’s location and as such, one of the women was blocking Kamukura’s sight from the target. No matter though. This didn’t even come close to a problem as all Kamukura had to do was wait it out.

As time passed, Kamukura watched the women and target drink and fondle each other as the alcohol set in. He was still patient and still unblinking. As his target uncrossed his legs, Kamukura saw his chance. The target stood up with his drink as though to propose a toast, no longer blocked by women still sitting on the couch.

The next moment, the women next to the target were sprayed in blood, the bullet so fast that Kamukura still could see their fake, happy expressions on their faces. Kamukura didn’t need to see the rest of the scene; that wasn’t why he’s here. He disassembled his rifle. Even though he was a hundred yards away, the further away he got from the scene the better. As he snapped the case for his rifle closed, the loud, blaring music was abruptly turned off as more of the party was realizing what was happening.

Kamukura took the case, using the strap to hold it on his shoulder, and ran towards the fire escape, keeping himself crouched down to make sure any of his target’s guards never saw him. With his free hands, he grabbed the railing on each side and pulled while pushing with his legs, swinging himself down each flight of stairs without actually using the stairs themselves. The momentum of his body angle and the pull of his muscles made the job incredibly quick, getting to the ground floor in less than a minute.

Now in a back alley, he quickly made his way to the street and slowed his pacing to match those around him, blending in with the crowd of people. He pulled the hairband from his hair and pulled out his cellphone, looking down while changing the stride of his walk. No one around noticed his arrival, but if they did, Kamukura just looked like any other young man addicted to his phone.

_‘Target eliminated.’_ A press to the send button and Kamukura just walked naturally, glancing like everyone else at the police cars going towards the direction of the building the target was at before looking back at his phone.

_‘Return to HQ at once. Vehicle 300 feet north. Report to handler.’_

Kamukura pocketed his phone and stayed on the sidewalk going north. Three hundred feet later, he saw a taxi on the side of the road with a sign in the window that said “Off Duty”. He walked to the passenger’s side and knocked on the window. The driver rolled down the window and looked up and down at Kamukura, chewing gum and looking completely unimpressed.

“Where ya heading, kid?”

“Towards the future.”

The driver nodded at the vague answer and gestured with his head towards the back seat. “Get in, kid.”

Kamukura opened the door and slid in, not even blinking when the driver locked the doors immediately when he shut the door. The driver moved the gear into drive, pausing just a moment to let more police cars headed towards the building through, before driving in the opposite direction. The cab driver took a microphone connected to his radio and pressed a button.

“Agent 15-CB to HQ. Kamukura acquired,” he said, placing the mic back in its holder. A static-filled voice replying ‘copy 15-CB’ was the only thing said before silence filled the cab. The drive to headquarters was going to take at least an hour depending on traffic, Kamukura knew. The cab driver just looked straight ahead, not even looking at Kamukura through his rear-view mirror. It was going to be a silent drive. That suited Kamukura just fine.

The environment leading up to their destination slowing turned from urban sprawl to dirt roads. When Kamukura noticed that they hadn’t seen another vehicle in the past twenty miles, he knew they were getting closer.

Then, he saw it in the distance. The lights were the first thing he noticed followed by large, brick walls and a gate. On the outside of the Future Foundation Headquarters, it looked like a typical large business building, were it not the fact that it were in the middle of nowhere. While it didn’t appear so as they drove in, Kamukura knew there were hundreds of security measures to prevent any person or object not welcomed within twenty miles of the property. Anyone who tried were promptly taken care of.

When Kamukura arrived at the large gate of the Future Foundation, he got out of the cab. He offered no payment, nor did the driver expect any, immediately driving away the second Kamukura shut the door behind him. He took out a card key, tapping it against a scanner in the gate and opened it when a light turned green. He knew at least a dozen hidden cameras were on him at that moment, but Kamukura gave it little thought as we walked to the door of the main building. There were no people walking around on the outside, but that was to be expected. Nobody came to the Future Foundation expecting to bathe in the sun or have a need for fresh air.

Kamukura opened the door with little fanfare, coming across a desk that looked like any other welcoming desk with a receptionist…

…were it not for the receptionist looking intently at her portable gaming console, thumbs wildly mashing against buttons and the only sound in the room was the clicks of her buttons and the audio of the game. However, this was not an abnormal sight and Kamukura was patient as he waited for the receptionist to finish what she was doing. They were both aware of each other’s presence, but they also knew better to acknowledge each other while she was busy with her games.

Eventually, Kamukura heard a noise that signified victory and the receptionist put down the console, leaning backwards and yawning. Kamukura could hear the joints in his body crack. She adjusted herself to be more comfortable as she was probably stuck in the same position for hours while she was playing the game and waiting for someone to arrive.

She eventually looked at Kamukura with pink eyes, half because they were her natural color and the other half because she probably hadn’t been blinking much.

“Good evening Agent Kamukura,” the receptionist welcomed in a calm voice.

“Agent Nanami.”

“Good job on another successful mission,” Nanami said. They always said the same thing to each other after every mission; it was practically tradition. Kamukura didn’t reply, nor did Nanami expect one. She booted up her computer which had probably been in sleep mode for hours now before typing a few things and clicking the mouse twice.

“Ah, okay. It says here you’re supposed to meet with your handler,” Nanami said more to herself than to Kamukura. “Agent Kirigiri is on the seventh floor in Meeting Room H. He wants you to freshen up and meet him in the meeting room in a half an hour.

Now with new orders in place, he turned away from Nanami, not saying another word. Next to the reception desk, there were elevators that would take him to where he needed to go. Before the elevator doors closed behind him, he could hear the sounds of Nanami starting up her gaming console again.

Kamukura first stop was at the weapons department to turn in his sniper rifle. The Future Foundation had multiples of almost every weapon imaginable, plus a lab meant for producing new weapons. It mattered very little to Kamukura though who waited bored while having his rifle inspected. He already knew what the inspector was going to find – one rifle, pristine condition, with a single bullet missing – but was still subject to the paperwork. Once he got the approval of the inspector, he went back on the elevator and headed to his room.

The rooms at Headquarters for their agents weren’t anything particularly special. It was more like a box that lacked any windows, but that suited Kamukura just fine. Some agents preferred to decorate it while others such as Kamukura only saw the room as a place to sleep and placed very little in the room.

In each room had a desk, a closet, and an en suite bathroom that each agent was expected to clean themselves. Other than the fixtures that were given to Kamukura when he arrived, he had little else that he kept in there.

Kamukura took a quick shower and took out a casual outfit from the closet. The outfit was quite plain: a black long-sleeved button down shirt and black slacks. However, it was more comfortable than the uniform with a suit and tie that he normally wore. Kamukura didn’t expect this meeting to be long, a debrief at most. While Kamukura could go long streaks of minimal sleep, Kirigiri liked to let Kamukura rest up as much as he could between missions.

Exactly twenty-four minutes later, Kamukura went up the elevator again to the seventh floor, the door opening up to sterile hallways going in every direction. Knowing the layout like the back of his hand, Kamukura took a left, a right, and then another left to reach Meeting Room H.

He knocked on the door and a muffled “come in!” followed. He opened the door to find his handler and another young man – more like a boy – standing up from where he was sitting on the couch in front of Kirigiri’s desk. While Kirigiri was smiling, Kamukura could see the tightness in his eyes and the subtle clench of jaw. Whatever was going to happen in this meeting was not going to be quick at all. Kamukura mentally sighed.

Kamukura glanced momentarily towards the man – boy? – before looking back at Kirigiri.

“Kamukura, thanks for coming on such short notice. I’m sure you’d like to rest soon, so I’ll get right to the point,” Kirigiri said, gesturing for him to sit on the couch on the opposite side of the other man. Kamukura didn’t have strong feelings one way or another towards his handler, but he appreciated him getting straight to the point.

Kamukura sat down on the couch across from the mystery man who sat down as well. Kamukura stared at the man and the man pointedly looked anywhere else that wasn’t forward. Occasionally, his eyes would dart towards Kamukura before immediately looking somewhere else when he realized he was watching.

“Kamukura, this is Naegi Makoto.”

Naegi Makoto. To Kamukura, the man didn’t look like much. Being surrounded by many types of characters in his field of work, Kamukura was used to personalities of different levels of insanity. However, this Makoto Naegi looked like a man you wouldn’t look twice at when walking along the street. He was below average height, with a plain face, and plain, messy hair. There was absolutely nothing extravagant about his appearance and gave no indication that he was even capable of anything.

How boring.

“Nice to meet you, Kamukura-senpai,” Naegi said, smiling brightly. Kamukura’s eyes just narrowed. He sized Naegi up, taking in the way Naegi scratched the side of his face with his finger – a nervous habit. Even though Naegi was smiling, Kamukura could see how his eyes would wander from him to Kirigiri and back to him. Yes, he was quite nervous and hoping that Kirigiri would give him support.

Kirigiri still looked strained as he watched the two of them, even with a pleasant look on his face. He never really showed that reaction unless he was preparing for something unpleasant to happen.

“As you know Agent Kamukura, the Future Foundation prides itself on the most efficient and satisfactory results for our clients,” Kirigiri began and that set off alarms in Kamukura’s head. Kirigiri would never bother using such unnecessary words with Kamukura, who much preferred to get straight to the point. This would mean that Kirigiri was trying to avoid saying something he knew would make Kamukura unhappy.

“-and because of that, the Board of Directors have seen fit that all agents are to have partners to-“

“No,” Kamukura interrupted, not needing to hear more. He had always worked solo and he had no intentions of working with another person who would only slow him down. If he had any say in the matter, Kamukura would never accept this.

“-provide extra security for our agents as well as produce even stronger agents who can learn from and work with each other. Thus ensuring that all agents are suitable for all types of situations,” Kirigiri concluded, ignoring Kamukura’s interruption. “This is a good thing, Kamukura. The Future Foundation is well aware how valuable your skills are, and therefore it is important share that knowledge. Plus, you could learn things from Naegi here as well.”

Kamukura stood up abruptly, staring directly into Naegi’s eyes. Naegi only partially met his gaze, looking quite nervous as Kamukura walked up to him before holding his hand out. Naegi looked at the hand in a confused state before standing up and taking his hand to shake.

Immediately, the hold on Naegi’s hand was tightened, preventing him from pulling away. Naegi’s eyes widened at the firm grip and while he never tried to pull away, it was very obvious to anyone with working vision to see the discomfort on his face. Kamukura took a close look at the hand he was holding. Smoothed and uncalloused, if not dry. In fact, Kamukura could see some slight ridges that showed the beginnings of dehydration. Naegi would definitely need moisturizer in the future. A wave of annoyance came with this observation as he turned his head toward his handler, not bothering to hide the aggravation on his face.

“He’s a virgin,” Kamukura said pointedly, narrowing his eyes. He hated when Kirigiri wasted his time like this.

“E-excuse me?” Naegi stammered out, blushing while looking down at the still-joined hands. He tugged lightly, trying to get away, which Kamukura allowed. Kirigiri sighed in resignation, as though knowing this was going to happen.

“Kamukura-”

“What could I possibly learn from a virgin?” Kamukura continued, ignoring the younger man. “You were never a funny man, Kirigiri.”

“I’m sorry, what exactly are you tal-” Naegi was trying to keep up with this conversation unsuccessfully. He flinched back as Kamukura’s piercing eyes was directed back at him as though he regretted saying anything.

“Have you ever shot a gun before?” Kamukura asked brusquely.

“Huh? O-of course I have! I’ve worked for the Future Foundation for over five years now,” Naegi responded, trying to make himself sound stronger than Kamukura already perceived him to be.

“And what is it that you have been doing here?”

“The same as you: reconnaissance and assassination.” Naegi was slowly moving from anxious to annoyed.

“Assassination you say.” Kamukura took one step forward and noted that Naegi took a half step back. “Then tell me this Naegi Makoto: have you ever killed anyone before?”

Naegi’s eyes widened and, as Kamukura predicted, said absolutely nothing. He looked over to Kirigiri again, who held a tight expression on his face.

“Why are you giving me a partner who has never killed a person before? I am not a trainer and he is going to bring me down.” Kamukura could see the flinch Naegi gave and promptly ignored it. He was never one to care about someone’s feelings, and he certainly wasn’t going to sugarcoat something that should be said outright.

Kirigiri backed down first, exhaling loudly and rubbing his temples of his forehead before looking back at Kamukura. “I know that you are unhappy with this arrangement, but this wasn’t my decision. You have never had a partner before and while I know you prefer it that way and as much as the higher ups appreciate the hard work you give, they prefer the extra security a partner gives to prevent anything happening to their assets. Besides, I think you’ll be quite surprised by the skills that Agent Naegi has.”

If Kamukura were the type of person, he would’ve snorted. Extra security? It’s more of a security problem to have to work with someone who was so obviously below him in abilities. Skills? Kamukura was a master at deduction and nothing that Naegi showed him so far showed any type of skill that Kamukura could possibly use.

“And like it or not, the Director personally requested this transfer.”

Kamukura narrowed his eyes at that and looked back at Naegi. Naegi refused to look at him, not even to glance furtively. Well, if the Director ordered it, there was nothing that Kamukura could do. How annoying.

Kamukura stood up suddenly, startling Naegi while Kirigiri just watched him. “I do not approve of this, but it’s not my place to say what the Director can or cannot do. Do not interfere with my work while we are together and we can be removed our partnership swiftly. I do not expect anything from you Naegi Makoto.”

Without so much as another word, Kamukura Izuru walked out the door.

**Author's Note:**

> Writing updates on my [Twitter](https://twitter.com/VextText).


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